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I don't get to see a ton of games, but 2 things seem to be hurting him.

1. He's been dealign with hip issues this year. That has taken away his lower body from his swing.

2. He's trying to put everything in the air. He's taken up a big upper cut in his swing which couple with his lack of lower body power is just a recipe for disaster for the guy who check in around a buck-forty.

Definitely a down year. We will see if he bounces back late this year. I'd give him next year to recover as well.

Oldie but a goodie.

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How ridiculous is Sean Doolittle right now? The dude hits the pros as a two-way player from UVA and is switched to 1B fulltime. He gets off to a crazy start in Stockton and carries on great production in AA Midland.

Then he gets hurt and basically doesn't play baseball for 2 years. He switches positions back to pitcher and and flies all the way through the minors in 2 months.

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I don't get to see a ton of games, but 2 things seem to be hurting him.

1. He's been dealign with hip issues this year. That has taken away his lower body from his swing.

2. He's trying to put everything in the air. He's taken up a big upper cut in his swing which couple with his lack of lower body power is just a recipe for disaster for the guy who check in around a buck-forty.

Definitely a down year. We will see if he bounces back late this year. I'd give him next year to recover as well.

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I'm starting to think that Shane Victorino (or likely Juan Pierre) is as good as gone with Domonic Brown looking a bit better as of late.

Got to see a few Lehigh games, Brown's new swing is AWESOME, which is totally not a word you should use for someone's swing. He's still a trainwreck when it comes to reading fly balls, however; he looks like he's aware of what's happening as opposed to Hunter Pence.

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How good could the A's be in the next few years? The team is so young. Yoenis Cespedes is 26, Josh Reddick and Chris Carter are both 25. And the A's have Michael Choice, Grant Green and Miles Head just biding time in the minors. I'm frothing at the mouth in anticipation of a Cespedes-Choice-Reddick outfield.

And the team is so stacked with young pitchers too. Jarrod Parker, Tommy Milone and AJ Griffin (all rookie pitchers) went against the best offense in baseball and they allowed three runs in three games (21 innings pitched). Parker, Milone and Griffin have all done really well so far. Out of the bullpen, Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle are absolutely dealing. Brett Anderson (who is only 24) is coming back relatively soon. And in the minors the Athletics have Daniel Straily (126.1 IP, 162 SO's, 2.64 ERA), Brad Peacock (4.01 FIP, 9.9 SO/9), AJ Cole (2.3 ERA, 61:10 K:BB, 10.1 SO/9 in A ball) and Sonny Gray.

As excited as I am about this team right now, I'm even more excited about this team down the line about two or three more years. If Beane plays it right, he could have a contender.

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Even with a struggling Hosmer, that lineup looks really nice if you replace Frenchy with a RF that actually produces at an average RF offensive output level. They need to just get it done...but it looks like they won't until September - same with Odorizzi (who isn't even close to ready to come up even though people keep calling for him).

And it looks like Bubba Starling might tear through the system like Myers has, too.

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Even with a struggling Hosmer, that lineup looks really nice if you replace Frenchy with a RF that actually produces at an average RF offensive output level. They need to just get it done...but it looks like they won't until September - same with Odorizzi (who isn't even close to ready to come up even though people keep calling for him).

And it looks like Bubba Starling might tear through the system like Myers has, too.

I think they may take a bit more time with Bubba. Everything I had heard was that he was a tremendous athlete, but still a bit raw in terms of baseball ability. Which is why he spent half the year in extended spring training. I would hope he is manning CF by 2014.